Watchdog.org Podcast

This is “In Our Backyards,” Watchdog.org’s podcast that examines local government — because the government that’s closest to you often can be the most important, even if you don’t hear much about it. We look at city councils, school boards and even water treatment authorities, because local officials can waste your tax dollars as easily as Congress can waste them. Government is real when it’s close by, in schools and local police forces. In this week's episode, host Eric Boehm sits down with Watchdog.org's national energy reporter Rob Nikolewski to talk about the potential for upstate New York to secede from the rest of the state. People in the Southern Tier are upset about a ban on hydraulic fracturing - or "fracking" - that prevents them from tapping into the rich natural gas deposits of the Marcellus Shale formation. Yes, it's unlikely.  But the fact that people are talking about it as a possibility shows just how upset some people are over the frack